Left Behind Mobius
by Sir Thomas Roberts
Summary: In an instant, millions from all across the globe disappear into thin air, leaving everything and everyone behind. Now, in the midst of this chaos a lone hedgehog searches for answers to this mystery.
1. Prologue

First let me say how great it is to finally be out of school. Now I finally have time to work on my fan fiction acount. And yes I know that I have other stories that probably need working on, but I started writing the first few chapters of this and I just felt that I should write this story. So, with happiness I present the long, long over due...

* * *

Left Behind - Mobius

Written by: Sir Thomas Roberts

Based on the book by Tim LaHyne and Terry B. Jenkins

Chapter 1

Rouge the Bat sighed as she leaned against the wall by her seat, trying unsuccessfully to fall asleep. She always hated over-night flights. How people were expected to sleep in airplane seats she would never know.

Her plane was flying across the Atlantic headed to the Westopolis International Airport. G.U.N. had recently ordered her to investigate suspected terrorist activity near Jerusalem in the old country of Israel. At first, everything went as planned. When she got off the plane and fetched her luggage, she flagged down a taxi to take her to her hotel. Once there she met some man named Nathaniel Judea, an Israeli archeologist and small time inventor who helped make Israel a wealthy and technologically advanced country with his discovery of a sprawling set of ruins containing ancient Babylonian technology on the western shore of Israeli.

He had recently been studying the Babylonian ruins East if Israel, but the recent unearthing of an old Babylonian temple just a few kilometers west of Jerusalem brought him back to the area. Apparently these supposed terrorists wanted to steal the technology found in the ruins. At least that's what everyone thought up until a week ago.

* * *

One Week Ago

Rouge was leaning against a wall outside the Babylonian ruins. She was supposed to be there to investigate terrorist activity, but the real reason she was there was her treasure hunting skills, although her skills as a G.U.N. agent was also a factor. Professor Judea had even recommended Rouge himself.

After the unearthing of the Babylonian ruins and technology that made Israel one of the wealthiest countries in the world, both Judea and Israel were reluctant to share most the most advanced technology with the rest of the world. Needless to say, many countries wanted to get their hands on it, and a few had threatened to use less diplomatic methods to obtain it.

Professor Judea was currently rambling on about the historic value of the ruins to a group of news reporters. "From the outer markings on this temple, we can assume that held within are historical records left by the ancient Babylonians. Inside these very walls may indeed lay the evidence needed to finally put to rest the age old myth that the Babylonians are descended from an alien race. Now if you would move the cameras over here…" Rouge just tried to tone him out. Earlier she also had to listen to one of the reporters blabber on about something concerning God, Judaism, and whatever. Rouge couldn't care less about that either.

Of course, most of her family was supposed to be Christians, but she just never really got into that sort of stuff. All she cared about was what you could see and feel, granted that mostly concerned jewelry, but that was beside the point. The point was that for now she just stood against a stone wall waiting for something to happen while Judea kept talking.

After a little while she heard a soft wining. She just ignored it, thinking it was just the equipment the archeologists had brought along with them. But then, she heard a siren from the nearby city.

"Good heavens what could that be?" Judea said. They didn't have to wait long for an answer. In the distance Rouge could see hundreds of small dots headed towards the Jerusalem. When they got closer Rouge was able to make out that they were fighter jets.

"Is Israel running any training exercises today?" Rouge asked.

"No," Judea answered, "Not that I have heard."

It didn't take long for Rouge to realize what was happening. "Get inside the ruins, now!" she ordered. In a few minutes everyone was inside the ruins. After about ten stressful minutes, it started. Loud explosions sounded all around them. They immediately ran deeper into the ruins hoping that they would be safe.

"Did, you see the emblem on the jet?" one of the reporters asked.

"Does it matter who sent the jets!" Judea snapped, "All that matters now is saving ourselves from this madness!"

Madness was right, there was an explosion almost every second. They could barely hear each other over the booms going on all around them, but something was wrong. There was no shaking. Surely explosions that large should be causing some kind of shockwave, but the ground was as still as ever.

Going against her better judgment, Rouge rushed out of the temple, ignoring the screams of protest from the others. As she approached the entrance to the ruins Rouge could see the orange light from a fire.

When she finally stepped out of the ruins, Rouge couldn't believe what she saw. The skies were set ablaze with hundreds of falling fighter jets. It was as if they were all exploding right where they flew. In fact, that was what most of the jets were doing. Those that remained were flying all over the place in total disarray, and some were even attacking their own jets! All Rouge could do was stand there and stare up into the flaming sky.

* * *

The memory of that night was fresh in Rouges mind as she tried to sleep. For a moment she opened her eyes to look out the window. So high above the clouds she could see the stars twinkling brilliantly in the nighttime sky. She remembered hearing one of the reporters talking about some bible passage in Ezekiel that supposedly talked about the end times. It said that in the end times a great enemy of Israel would attack from the north with the help of countries such as Ethiopia, Persia, Libya, and others southeast of the Black Sea.

According to the latest news reports, that was exactly what happened in Jerusalem. It was revealed latter that Russia allied with Ethiopia, Turkey, Iran, which was Persia in ancient times, Lebanon, Afghanistan, and Libya. It also said that God would turn them against each other, and Rouge saw for herself, the attacking jets were firing on each other.

Could her family been right about all that God and Jesus stuff? But the Jews hated Jesus. Why would God protect people who persecuted his supposed son? Wouldn't that make Judea and all the other Jews right? _But that would still make me wrong. _Rouge thought. She decided to just give up trying to understand what happened. There would be plenty of time to think about it once she got home.

Then, all of a sudden, Rouge heard a rustling sound next to her, like someone had dropped a pile of clothes. Thinking nothing of it, Rouge closed her eyes, and finally slipped off into a fitful sleep.

* * *

Shadow the Hedgehog sat at his tiny booth, blankly staring out the window of a small Westopolis café. On the table was a small half-full cup of coffee, it was actually his third cup. His best friend Rouge was due back from Israel that night. He had agreed to pick her up and decided to kill some time at his favorite café. He picked up his cup and drank what was left. On the wall on the other side of the café was a television tuned into a news station. It was showing a press conference with the vice-president of the United Federation.

"…and furthermore my plan for the future will include total disbarment of all major world powers. Now many of you might be tempted to say that this is impossible, that not even half of the world's sovereign countries will be willing to give up their weapons, but I say to you, if we, the people of the world, of the _Global_ Community, show our leader that we want, that we are ready for global peace and prosperity, then nothing is impossible!" The audience went wild on his last statement.

"Need more coffee, honey?"

"What?" Shadow said turning to the blond haired cat waitress who spoke to him.

"I asked if you wanted anymore coffee."

"Uh, yeah sure." he responded.

The waitress poured Shadow some more coffee into his cup. "That Phoenix is something else isn't he?" she said.

"Who?"

"Tyson Phoenix, the guy on the T.V. that guys one in a million."

"He's a politician right?"

"Yeah."

"Meh, I give the guy a month before he falls flat on his face."

"Well you're optimistic."

"No, Casey, I'm just being realistic. He's talking about working towards a perfect world right."

"Right"

"Well, to have a perfect world, you need perfect people. And as we all know, no one is perfect."

"You never know, say did you hear about that mess over in Israel?"

"Sure did, I have a friend I have to pick up at the airport coming back from Israel."

"I'm guessing they told you all about it then?"

"Yes, they were right in the middle of it. If I hadn't of seen it on TV, I might not have believed her. I mean, jet fighters just blowing up in the air and crashing without hurting a single person. It's crazy."

"Almost makes you believe in miracles doesn't it?"

"Almost."

"Honestly honey, you've been coming here for nearly a year, and I haven't ever seen your attitude improve. Don't you ever cheer up?"

"Don't worry, I'll cheer up, just as soon as the world ends and I don't have to put up with anybody."

"You're hopeless."

"Whatever," Shadow then got up and handed Casey a twenty dollar bill, "Pay for my coffee will you, and keep the change as a tip, I got to go pickup my friend from the airport."

"All right then, night honey."

"Night," Shadow said as he walked out the door.

* * *

Shadow hopped onto his motorcycle and put the key in the ignition. He didn't really need to pick up Rouge at that moment, in reality her flight wasn't supposed to be in for another two hours. He just didn't feel like spending his entire night inside a café, plus he needed to get his car from his house to pick up Rouge anyways.

He pulled out onto the street and drove off. The night traffic was light, so Shadow was able to relax a little while driving. He actually liked driving his motorcycle around; it was one of the few things that relaxed him. He had even taken a month off from work at G.U.N. once to drive across the country on his motorcycle. It was a pretty good break; that was until Sonic showed up. Somehow that blue idiot had managed to find him amongst all the roads on the continent. _Oh, how I wish that idiot would just disappear sometimes, than maybe my "attitude" would get better._ Shadow shook his head and shoved all thoughts of Sonic from his head. Right now all he wanted to do was drive around the local streets and try to enjoy the city night.


	2. Gone

Hello again, I'm writing this from Operation Catapult at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. It's basically like an awesome college camp. It's only the second day and i'm all ready totally psyched. Well, here's the next chapter, enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 2: Gone

Rouge woke up slowly. It took her a few minutes to come to her senses and remember where she was. Rouge stretched out her arms above her head, making sure not to accidentally hit the person next to her.

She looked out the window to see that it was still night time. Instead of trying to go back to sleep, which she deemed near impossible in the airplanes seats, she decided to get her mp3 out of the overhead compartment to pass the time. 'I must have been tired if I managed to fall sleep to begin with,' she thought.

She turned around to ask the person next to her if she could slide past them and get out, but they weren't there. Rouge figured that they must have gone to the restroom. She stood up to get out of her seat, but as she slid past the next seat, her leg brushed against something that felt like a pair of pants. She looked down and jumped. Lying on the seat was a pair of pants, a shirt, and a pair of glasses. She quickly got out and walked down the aisle to one of the flight attendants.

When she walked up to the attendant, she was sleeping. Rouge tapped her on the shoulder to wake her up.

"Huh, you need something?" the attendant asked.

"Um, I'm not sure how to say this, but I think the person sitting next to me is running around the plane naked." the attendant stared at her. "Just come look, okay."

The attendant got up and walked over to where Rouge was sitting. She pulled out a small pocket flashlight and pointed it at the seat. She also jumped when she saw the clothing piled up in the seat. She even checked under the seat and found a pair of shoes with the socks inside them.

"Alright, I'll go report this." the attendant said. As she turned to leave, she accidentally bumped into a man in the next seat over. "Excuse me, sir" she said.

"It's alright." he said, waking up. The man looked over to the seat next to his to check on his toddler son. But all that was there was a pile of clothes. Worried, he shook his wife awake. "Honey, where's the kid?"

"What?" she asked. She looked over to the empty seat and a look of worry came over her face when she saw it empty.

"Henry." she whispered, "Henry." she said a little louder. "Henry, where are you!" she said on the verge of yelling.

"What's all that racket?" an old man behind her said. He looked around a little and saw the seat next to him that his wife was sitting in was empty. "Clara, Clara, where are you" he said. Soon the entire plane was in an uproar.

Rouge returned to her seat and pulled her legs up to her chest. It was a total nightmare. All over the plane people were yelling for friends and loved ones who had apparently disappeared into thin air, leaving behind all of their clothes and other effects. Suddenly, a man came running down the aisle way. "I'm getting off this plane! I won't be next!."

Rouge shook herself out of her stupor and hurried after the man. When she caught up to him one of the flight attendants was trying to pull him off of the emergency exit door. Rouge grabbed hold of the man's waist and pulled him off the door. She and the attendant then tackled him to the floor. They eventually managed to wrestle him back into the seat when the oxygen masks deployed. The man grabbed his and put it on immediately.

The captain's voice soon came over the intercom. "Everyone please remain calm, the flight is only an hour away from Westopolis. Please remain in your seats while the attendants come around to ask for the names of all the people missing. The list will be sent directly to the authorities upon our arrival."

Rouge had no idea what was happening. All she could do at the moment was help keep the order on the plane and try to stay calm for the next agonizing hour.

* * *

Shadow was cruising along the highway at about 40 miles an hour. While normally he would be gunning is motorcycle as fast as he could along the Highway, but the traffic was unusually heavy. So he just decided it was best to just go along with it instead of taking a risk on hurting someone.

Looking down at his watch Shadow saw that it was about 10:45. He sighed; Rouge's flight still had another hour to go before it landed. Guess it's going to be another boring night, he thought.

After about fifteen more minutes of driving, Shadow heard the sound of tires screeching coming from behind him. Turning his head, he saw a truck headed straight for him!

Acting on instincts, shadow jumped off of his motorcycle and landed on the side of the road. But before he had a chance to do anything else, he was suddenly struck on the side by a massive force. Shadow found himself thrown onto the smashed hood of a small mini-van. He slowly picked himself up. While he may have been near immune to injury, he was still susceptible to pain.

When he finally stood up, Shadow saw the traffic wrecked for miles. Shadow swore under his breath. Then, seeing that he was on the hood of a mini-van, looked inside to see who all was inside, but no one was inside. All that was inside were piles of clothes.

Shadow stared at the inside of the empty van for few seconds before shaking his head and looking up. All along the highway wrecked vehicles were strewn everywhere. Many people were laying on the road either dead or close to dying, and the few who were still in decent shape were busy helping others out of their cars.

When Shadow saw movement inside an over turned car, he quickly jumped down from the van and ran over to the car to find a woman trapped inside. Shadow with his unnatural strength ripped the door of and helped the woman out of her car. Laying her down on the road Shadow propped her head up and felt her pulse. It was slow and fading.

"M…band," she whispered.

"What?" Shadow asked.

"Should…'ave listened to him."

"Listened to him? About what." "Please, forgive me." then with her last breath, she died in Shadows arms, and the black hedgehog stared at her trying to make sense of what her just heard and seen.

* * *

"All emergency personnel please report to the loading bays. All able bodied persons who have missing friends and/or relatives please report to the front desk." Rouge heard the speakers out on the runway repeat the same message in multiple languages as she slid down the emergency exit ramp.

Slinging her carry on bag across her shoulder and making sure that her wings movement was unhampered by the bag, Rouge took of into the air. From the air Rouge could see the airport in its entirety. All of the runways were crammed with aircrafts of all sizes. Many were also crashed and burning in the surrounding the fields.

It quickly became apparent to her that the disappearances were on a countrywide scale at the least. Her first thought jumped to Doctor Eggman. He was the only one on Mobius who had the technology to do something like this.

But then again, he had never, and swore that he never would, cause devastation and death on this large of scale. He had even admitted once said, "What's the point of ruling if there's no one to rule over."

This was all to confusing for Rouge, for now she would focus on getting to the airport terminal. One step at a time her mother always told her.A lump formed in her throat as she thought about her family. If there was a God, she prayed that her family hadn't suffered the same fate as so many others had.

* * *

Kindly Review


	3. Hi, and Goodbye

Chapter 3: Hi, and Goodbye

Shadow sped along the highway as he approached the airport. He had no idea if Rouge's flight had landed yet or if she was still around, but he didn't feel like sitting around wondering.

Most of the wreckage along the highway was being taken care of by different emergency response teams. So, Shadow didn't have to worry about helping much, although he would lend a hand whenever he felt like they needed it.

Shadow arrived at the airport at around midnight and the terminal was bustling with activity. Most people were trying to find a way home and many others were sitting against the walls off to the side being treated for multiple injuries by anybody with an iota of medical experience. The only way to describe it was a mad house.  
Knowing Rouge, Shadow quickly decided that she would have gone to the main security office to contact GUN headquarters and to escape the crowd. He steadily made his way over to the security counter, shoving through a sea of both humans and mobians alike.

Sitting at the counter was a busy looking brown dog wearing a standard blue security uniform.

"Excuse me!" Shadow hollered loud enough for the dog to hear him over the crowd.

"Ow, Darn it! I'm not deaf you know!" he wined rubbing his sensitive ears.

"I need to get into the security office immediately."

"Well who the heck do you think you are! The president!"

"Not exactly, but I got connections." Shadow flashed his GUN I.D.

"Oh, um, Sorry Mr. Shadow. Mike! Get out here!" As soon as he yelled a young green chameleon came running out.

"You called boss?" the chameleon said.

"Yeah, take this GUN agent back to the main office."

"You got it."

Mike opened up the dividing door and motioned for Shadow to come through. He then lead the hedgehog into a long hallway with other officers and clerks running around chaotically. "Sorry about the mess," the officer said, "Things have been a little hectic since the vanishings."

"You should see the highways." Shadow said, "By the way has a white bat come in here recently?"

"A white bat? No, I don't think so. Who are they?"

"Another GUN agent. I was supposed to meet her here."

"Well I could always look at the security monitors and see if we can find her."

"All right, sounds good."

The chameleon then led Shadow to a heavy metal door. He than took out a set of keys, selected one, and opened the door. Of to the side was a pile of clothes. Mike didn't say anything about them, so Shadow just figured that they belonged to an unlucky officer. In one of the chair sat an old officer, asleep.

"Hey Hank I need to see the monitors a second," Mike said. Hank just snored. "I'll take that as a 'go on ahead.'"

Mike sat down I another chair and began scanning the screens for Rouge. "Let's see, white bat, white bat, aha! There she is!" Mike said as he pointed at the monitor. Shadow looked where he pointed. Sure enough, Rouge there, slowly making her way through a crowd of people on her way to the baggage claim area.

"Great, thanks. I just need one more favor."

"You name it."

"Could you call her over the intercom, no use of me going out to get her if we're just going to come back here anyways."

Mike nodded and rolled his chair over to an intercom phone. He pulled the phone off the receiver and pushed the button for the luggage claim area.

* * *

Rouge the Bat wondered aimlessly through the terminal. Despite all the chaos, an announcer over the intercom said that everyone's baggage would still be sent to the claim area. She didn't know how that would be managed, but she didn't want to leave without her luggage, even if the world was going to hell all around her.

Earlier she had tried to contact her parents to see if they were alright. Unfortunately the phone lines were currently over loaded with all the people placing calls. Rouge quickly realized that the only way she was going to be able to check in on them was to get to their apartment in Station Square. But first, her suitcase.

After managing to shove her way through the sea of people standing around waiting for who knew what, Rouge reached the claim area, she was glad to see that luggage was already being rolled out onto the belt. without anything else to do the bat stood there staring at the various bags pass by.

Suddenly, a voice came over the intercom and said, "Rouge the Bat please report to the main security office. Your escort from G.U.N. has arrived to pick you up." Annoyed, Rouge resigned herself to remain at the claim area until her luggage had arrived. Her "escort' would just have to wait. Besides, she already had an idea who it was anyway.

* * *

Mike the Chameleon hung up the intercom phone and turned back around to Shadow. "Well," he said, "She should be here shortly."

Shadow looked at the monitor and saw Rouge still standing at the luggage claim area. "Yeah, shortly," he said.

Mike sighed, "So what's your thoughts on all of this?"

"All of what?"

"The disappearances, I'm sure you must have some sort of idea what happened to every one."

"Heck if I know," the black hedgehog replied, "What about you?"

"Well, I think, that this is the result of some kind of selection process."

"Selection process?"

"Yeah, I think that someone or something has, in a since, skimmed through everyone on Mobius and selected certain people to disappear."

"And what would be the criteria for disappearing."

"Well I was thinking that someone might have chosen the strongest people on the planet and got rid of them to prepare the way for some sot of invasion."

"Invasion? If this was some sort of invasion, then why not just make everyone disappear and eliminate any opposition?"

"Well what the point of conquering someone if you can't rule over them?" Shadow gave him a questioning look. "Well my theory ain't perfect."

"True," Shadow said, "So, do you have any plans for this invasion?"

"What are you? Some sort of journalist?"

"Just a guy asking questions." Shadow looked at the monitor again and saw Rouge pull a suitcase off the belt and walk off. 'Finally, we can get going.' Shadow thought.

"Anyhow," Mike continued, "I was planning on becoming a charter pilot."

"A charter pilot?" Shadow questioned.

"Yeah, when I was younger I got certified to fly all those smaller jets. Leers, Gulfstreams, you name it. I was planning on becoming a pilot, but I already had a decent job as a security guard here. And I didn't want to take the risk of quitting my job and falling flat on my face and flat broke from lack of fliers, but I kept getting recertified every year just incase. So, I figure, with all the people who are going to be looking for flights home, now is as good as time as any to start."

Shadow hummed as he thought, "How would you like your first job, right now. I need a flight from here to the G.U.N. base in Station Square." Shadow said.

"I don't know, I still got a few thing to sort out here…"

"Twenty grand, upfront."

Mikes eyes lit up as he ran out of the room, "Hey boss! I need to talk to you a minute!" on his way out her bumped into Rouge who happened to show up.

"What's his deal?" Rouge asked annoyed.

"Hello to you too. And make sure you got all of your bags, I just got a flight to the main G.U.N. base. Getting back there seems to be the best option we have at for the time being."

"Humph, and who made you the boss all of a sudden." she snapped.

"Well, I figured that since you have family in Station Square, you'd want to check on them."

Rouge went silent and nodded in agreement, "So, when do we leave."

"In few hours if we get lucky. By the way, I need to borrow 25,000 dollars.

Rouges temper flared up again, "What!"

"I need 20,000 to pay the pilot." Shadow said with his usual unemotional monotone voice.

"Well what's the other five grand for!"

"I need a new motor cycle." If rouge had any less self-control she would have punched him.

* * *

Shadow walked across the tarmac to a small hanger and runway on the edge of the airport. The hanger was small and could probably only fit about two small aircrafts inside. The runway was, unlike the rest of the runways, free of planes and debris.

"How come this runway's clear and the rest aren't?" Shadow wondered aloud.

"The runway's too small," Mike said as he walked out of the open hanger doors. "None of the larger airliners can land here. As for the lack of wrecked planes, well, that just dumb luck."

"Suits me," Shadow said with a shrug, "Where's our ride?"

"First," The chameleon said holding out his hand. Shadow frowned and handed him a check for 20 grand.

"Thank you. Right this way," Mike said motioning them inside.

Inside was surprisingly spacious, on one side was a leer jet, and on the other was a small Cessna and a Cub. All three looked like they had just been built and ready to fly.

"Nice collection," Rouge said, "Witch one's yours?"

"The the Cub and the Cessna actually. The leer is owned by the airport, but fortunately for you three, they're is letting us barrow it for our trip."

"And they just let you barrow it?" Rouge asked skeptically.

"Well, at the price of four grand, but I figured that you all should get what you paid for." Rouge smiled and nodded. Happy that at least she didn't have to add "put up with a scam artist pilot" to her list of thing that have gone wrong.

"All right then," Mike said, "Lets get going shall we." Mike took Rouges suitcase and hauled it up the stairs for her. As Rouge began to follow him up, Shadow turned to leave.

"Wait, where are you going?" Rouge asked.

"Well, I'm leaving while you get onto your flight." Shadow answered.

"Wait you booked this flight for me?"

"What, I can't do something nice for someone?"

Rouge just shook her head. She never understood why Shadow does what he does. "Whatever," She said, turning around.

"By the way," Shadow said just as Rouge was stepping inside the plane, "I still need 5,000 dollars for a new Motorcycle."

"And like heck you're getting it from me." And with that Rouge pulled up the stairs and was safely inside the plane. Shadow just smirked and walked out of the hanger.

Inside the plane, Rouge sat down in her seat, strapped herself in, and laid her head back. As she did, she heard Mike yell clear out the window. She then head the wine of the engines as Mike started up the plane. The plane was slowly taxied out of the hanger. After Mike got conformation from the tower, he sped down the runway and into the air.

From the sky, Rouge could see Shadow speeding back along the highway towards the beach. Rouge wondered what he was up to, but quickly decided not to think about it. She then turned around and went to sleep.


	4. Investigation

Chapter 4: Investigation

Shadow was quietly skating across the Pacific ocean when the sun slowly started to go down. Still skating, he reached up and rubbed his eyes. He was quickly getting tired, but Shadow had things to do and answers to find. Sleep could wait until everything was done and found.

On the horizon the black hedgehog could see a small island with a tower rising up into the sky. Surrounding the island was what Shadow knew to be a 120 foot tall and four foot thick, circular seawall. And flying around the island were hundreds of small patrol robots. Each one loaded with about 200, 7.9 millimeter round,, each one programmed to shoot what ever tried to get over the wall.

'This should be fun,' Shadow thought to himself.

As he approached the massive sea walls, Shadow could hear warning sirens going off. Soon enough the island's defense system switched into offence and missiles emerged from holes in the wall. Shadow effortlessly dodged to the side of them. Deciding to have a little fun, Shadow started to run up the wall instead of smashing through it as he usually did.

Soon a squad of hovering robots showed up and started firing at him, but fortunately, Shadow was faster than the bullets and all they did was make small indentions in the walls. Reaching the top, the black blur shot into the air. Doing a summersault, Shadow moved to face his robotic pursuers and launched a set chaos spears at them. They didn't stand a chance, exploding into tiny bits instantaneously.

Shadow then made a smooth landing on the other side of the wall, only to come face to face with an army of round bi-pedal robots.

"Really," Shadow said to himself, "This is the best he can do?" Just as he said that, two large holes opened up in the ground and two fifty-foot tall robots came out each with the same body design as the others, but these were armed with spiked balls on their left arms and laser guns on the other.

"That's more like it," Shadow said. He then curled into a ball and spin-dashed into the crowd of smaller robots, smashing most of them to bits. One of the larger robots then fired its laser at Shadow, the other launched its spiked ball at him. But instead of hitting the hedgehog, they just hit the smaller robots Shadow had missed.

He then uncurled and jumped up onto the chest of one of the giant robots. The other mindlessly fired it's laser at Shadow, but he dodged it just in time and it blasted a hole clean through the robot he jumper off of, causing it to explode.

Shadow then spin-dashed at the ground by the remaining robots feet, rebounded off it, and shot straight up and through the last robot causing it to explode as well.

He then skated inside the giant tower in the center of the island and spin-dashed through the ceilings of each floor. until he came to the uppermost floor. He then landed back on the floor and came face to face with a large sliding door. Shadow effortlessly ripped out the door and causally walked inside.

housed inside was a large control room, with an over-sized swivel chair sitting in front of a large computer screen and keyboard. The chair turned around, and sitting in it, with his arms crossed, was an angry looking Dr. Eggman.

"Are you always this rude!" Dr. Eggman snapped. That wasn't the response Shadow was expecting from the doctor.

"Excuse me?" Shadow said, taken aback by the doctors lack of insults.

"You heard me Shadow! And what ever the answer, I don't actually. I don't have the time or patience for whatever vendetta or suspicion you have for me this time. I'm trying to watch the news." With that Eggman turned around and continued watching the large monitor in front of him.

Shadow didn't want to leave without the answers he came for, but his attention was temporarily diverted when he saw what was on the news.

"…and on another note," the news man said, "Many witness have managed to film these mysterious disappearances. Look a this one clip for example." the scene then switched to a rock concert. Right in the middle of a song, the drummer, and the bass player both disappeared, leavening behind their clothes. The same thing happened to many others in the crowd. The scene then switched to the news man again.

"And take a look at this video, taken by a security camera in front of a supermarket in Spagonia" The video this time was of a parking lot. All over men, women, and children were casually walking to and from their cars. Then suddenly, all the younger children disappeared along with many other adults. Then it was back to the news man.

"At some funerals, entire crowds have disappeared, leavening the body behind, and at others the body was taken, but only a few from the crowd were as well. And in hospitals all across the world, pregnant women, are about to give birth one minute and suddenly, the about to be born baby disappears from inside the womb, this is the case with all pregnant women. Some about to give birth, others only carrying fetuses. And millions of other poor, unfortunate souls around the globe have been taken as well.

"It is clear to this reporter that these disappearances have been just as mysterious as they are tragic. Thank you for watching. We will keep you updated on the latest." the screen then switched to a spinning CNN logo.

Eggman then pressed a few buttons and the screen switched to a computer screen with about a dozen windows open. The doctor looked over his shoulder at Shadow. "You're still here," he observed before returning to the screen.

"Yes, and since we're being frank, I'll just get straight to the point," the hedgehog answered, "What do you know about the disappearances? And did you have anything to do with it?"

Eggman snorted and turned around again, "I know about as much as anybody else on the planet. And no, I didn't have anything to do with it. It's not my style." Shadow didn't know why, but for some reason he believed him, to an extent.

"You sure you don't know anything?"

The doctor groaned, "No I don't, I've been trying to figure it out though. I've done multiple scans of both the atmosphere and lithosphere, that's under the Earth by the way, and I've even looked in as many ancient texts and prophesies as I could find, since you know how often that stuff ends up biting us in the butt."

"True," Shadow said.

"But even with all my brilliance and hard work, I have only been able to find one lead."

"What that?"

Eggman smirked, "I'll show you." he then turned back around pulled up a page that said First Thessalonians 4:16+17. "For the lord himself will come down from Heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. After that, we who are still alive and left will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever."

"If you're trying to pass yourself off as a saint, you're not very convincing."

"Hardy har. That's not what I'm getting at. You see this passage falls within the ancient prophesies section of my research. What it is saying is that on the earth's last days, Jesus is supposed to come back for all the Christians on the planet. Even the bodies of dead Christians are supposed to be taken. At least that's the most popular interpretation"

"Your not saying that you believe all this do you?"

"Not in the slightest. The Bible actually goes on to describe a surprisingly large quantity of quote 'end-time' prophesies. I'm just curious as to whether or not these prophesies are true. At the very least one might be. "

"Hmm" Shadow thought for a minute, "You're saying that all the dead bodies are supposed to be taken as well. Right?"

"Well, yes. But these writing are thousands of years old, there are still many variables of change and translation too…", but Shadow had heard enough.

The black hedgehog ran out of the control room, leaving Eggman even angrier than before, with Shadow not letting him finish and all. But Shadow was too concerned about what he had just heard. Shadow didn't believe the Bible either. To him it was just a bunch of confusing phrases and metaphors. But as a G.U.N. agent, he was trained to fallow every lead he got, no matter how crazy they sounded. And if what he heard was true, Shadow knew exactly how to confirm it.

* * *

"Hey wake up," Rouge heard, still mostly asleep.

"Hello, Earth to bat," Rouge heard again in her sleep.

"WAKE UP!" Rouge almost jumped out of her seat, but was held back by the seat belt.

"Thanks, for the wake up call," Rouge groaned as she stretched out her still tired mussels. "I take it were about to land?" She asked.

"Yes, but I need you up here for the landing," Mike said.

"What for?"

"Well, I figure you know as well as anybody that G.U.N. doesn't let just anybody land on their airstrips."

"Oh, right." Rouge unbuckled and made her way to the cockpit. From the cockpit Rouge could see the massive G.U.N. headquarters in front of them. Located on the out skirts of Central City, they had plenty of room to build. The main building was five stories tall and in the shape of a massive pentagon. The airfield actually took up half the area, with five different airstrips and ten hangers for emergency vehicles and aircrafts. As soon as Rouge strapped herself into the copilots seat a voice came in over the radio.

"This is G.U.N. central command. You are entering restricted airspace. Identify yourself or we will assume you are hostile and will resort to lethal measures. Over"

Rouge sighed and put on a set of head phones. G.U.N. was still as hardnosed as ever. "This is agent Rouge the Bat, returning from Westopolis after assignment in Jerusalem, Israel. Code tango-zulu-uniform-5-4-4-9-alpha. Over"

The radio went silent for a moment and the voice came back onto the speakers. "Welcome home Rouge, it's good to hear you're alright. You have been cleared for landing. Priority 5. please land on airstrip 3 and taxi to Hanger C. Over and out."

Rouge leaned back in her seat, but then remember something. "This is agent Rouge the Bat," she said over the head set mic, "I need a check for twenty thousand dollars delivered to hanger C upon my arrival. Over."

"For what purpose? Over."

"To pay my pilot. Over."

"Couldn't you have picked a cheaper charter? Over."

"Blame agent Shadow the Hedgehog. Over and out." Mike chuckled as they landed.


End file.
